| fool around to waste time doing something without a particular purpose. It was a serious academic school, not a place to fool around. Usage notes: often used in the negative to mean to not waste time but to act with a serious purpose: The coach was in no mood to fool around, and the team knew it. I've had to reorganize, redefine, & separate "fool around" from "fool around with sth" and "with sb" orig. combined in 2 entries, as the objects differ; also "mess around" etc.--SL, 12/02 Related vocabulary: fuck around |